---
title: So greatly did they desire to have one, that the wife prayed for it… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So greatly did they desire to have one, that the wife prayed for it day and night, but still they remained childless. Who acts: children, wife. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Juniper-tree, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Juniper-tree, sentence 3

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So greatly did they desire to have one, that the wife prayed for it day and night, but still they remained childless.

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**Who acts:** children, wife · **What happens:** do, desire, have, pray, remain · **To what, where:** one

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, The Juniper-tree. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children, wife), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2591:38:3
# text = So greatly did they desire to have one, that the wife prayed for it day and night, but still they remained childless.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	desire	desire	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	still	still	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
24	childless	childless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  |  |  |  |  | greatly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **desire** | present | children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **have** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | children *= child* *not said here* | one |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 4 | **pray** | past | the wife |  |  |  | day | for it | vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for it=Theme |
| 5 | **remain** | past | children *= child* |  |  |  | still | childless *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 2591 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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